Counterterrorism

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration said Thursday that it was replacing the acting chief of the National Counterterrorism Center, part of an ongoing leadership shakeup in the intelligence community. Russell Travers took over as acting director of the NCTC last August and has spent decades in...

People wear face masks as they shop at a food market in Tel Aviv, Israel, Monday, March 16, 2020. Israel imposed sweeping travel and quarantine measures the government ordered restaurants, malls, cinemas, gyms and daycare centers shut to contain the spread of the coronavirus. For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms. For some it can cause more severe illness. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

JERUSALEM (AP) — The head of Israel's shadowy Shin Bet internal security service said Tuesday that his agency received Cabinet approval overnight to start deploying its counter-terrorism tech measures to help curb the spread of the new coronavirus in Israel. While Nadav Argaman acknowledged that...

Saudi King Salman receives a newly appointed Saudi ambassador at his palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Sunday, March 8, 2020. Two senior princes in Saudi Arabia are under arrest for not supporting Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has consolidated control of all major levers of power with the support of his father, King Salman, two people close to the royal family said Saturday. (Saudi Press Agency via AP)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia's King Salman was shown in state media Sunday in apparent good health and working, just days after the arrest of two senior princes triggered speculation about a possible coup attempt or a sudden deterioration in the king's health. Two people close to...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Two senior princes in Saudi Arabia are under arrest for not supporting Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has consolidated control of all major levers of power with the support of his father, King Salman, two people close to the royal family said Saturday. The...

Forensic officers work on a blast site near the US Embassy in Tunis, Friday, March 6, 2020. Tunisian media are reporting that two people on a motorcycle have set off a blast near the U.S. Embassy in the capital Tunis, the private Radio Mosaique said that five police officers were wounded and described it as a suicide attack. (AP Photo/Riadh Dridi)

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Tunisia paid homage Saturday to a police officer killed and five others injured in a double suicide bombing outside the U.S. Embassy. No one has claimed responsibility for Friday's attack, set off by two attackers on a motorcycle packed with explosives, and authorities are...

U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, right, and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, speaks during a joint news conference in presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020. The U.S. is poised to sign a peace agreement with Taliban militants on Saturday aimed at bringing an end to 18 years of bloodshed in Afghanistan and allowing U.S. troops to return home from America's longest war. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration's peace deal with the Taliban opens the door for an initial American troop withdrawal that Defense Secretary Mark Esper sees as a step toward the broader goal of preparing for potential future war with China. Esper has his eye on “great power competition...

In this photograph taken Tuesday Feb. 25, 2020, U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Dagvin Anderson, commander of the U.S. military's special forces in Africa, speaks to the Associated Press in Thies, Senegal. The only place in the world where fighters linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group are cooperating is in West Africa's sprawling Sahel region. The commander of the U.S. military's special forces in Africa says that "if it‘s left unchecked it could very easily develop into a great threat to the West and the United States.” (AP Photo/Cheikh A.T Sy)

THIES, Senegal (AP) — The only place in the world where fighters linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group are cooperating is in West Africa's sprawling Sahel region, giving the extremists greater depth as they push into new areas, according to the commander of the U.S. military's special...

In this Tuesday Feb. 18, 2020, photo, Burkina Faso paratroopers commando exercise under the supervision of Dutch special forces during U.S. military-led annual counterterrorism exercise in Thies, Senegal. More than 1,500 service members from the armies of 34 African and partner training nations have assembled for the Flintlock exercises in Senegal and Mauritania, the two countries in West Africa's sprawling Sahel region that so far have not been hit by violence from extremists linked to al-Qaida or the Islamic State group. (AP Photo/Cheikh A.T Sy)

THIES, Senegal (AP) — Crouching in the sparse brush, maneuvering into formations through a divide, and then shooting at a target, about 10 soldiers from Burkina Faso are among a select group of African soldiers being trained to battle West Africa's fast-growing extremist threat. They are carrying...

Russia's President Vladimir Putin on Thursday hailed the FBI for sharing information that helped thwart a terror attack by adherents of the Islamic State group in St. Petersburg during the New Year holidays. Speaking at a meeting with senior officials of the Federal Security Service (FSB), the top...

FILE - In this Aug. 11, 2019, file photo, Hamid Hayat, right, is welcomed by the community after making his first public appearance at a news conference that coincided with Eid al-Adha, also called the "Festival of the Sacrifice," an Islamic holiday, in Sacramento, Calif. Federal prosecutors in California on Friday, Feb. 14, 2020, ended what once was among the nation's highest profile anti-terrorism cases, after a judge earlier overturned Hayat's conviction that grew from conspiracy allegations in the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks. (Daniel Kim/The Sacramento Bee via AP, File)

SACRAMENTO, Calif (AP) — Federal prosecutors in California on Friday ended what once was among the nation's highest profile anti-terrorism cases, after a judge earlier overturned the conviction that grew from conspiracy allegations in the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks. Hamid Hayat, a cherry...